—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

Walmart workers rally in L.A. against company retaliation

LOS ANGELES — Dozens of current and former Walmart workers and supporters rallied here May 28 against what workers call retaliatory firings and store closings by the retail giant.

Some 150 people marched through Chinatown sporting stickers saying “Walmart, end retaliation now.” Some had just ended a 24-hour fast. Supporters included port truck drivers, the Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers unions, Fight for $15 and Chinatown Community for Equitable Development.

“After working at the Placerville Walmart for 12 years, I was fired on a bogus reason,” Cherie Carpenter told the Militant. “A month ago three of us were taken out the same day. Two of us were active with OUR Walmart and all three of us were higher-paid associates. They accused me of stealing water they were supplying to us.” OUR Walmart is a nationwide movement fighting for $15 an hour, regular hours and respect.

“Walmart shut down its most active store,” Venanzi Luna told the crowd. Luna is a spokesperson for OUR Walmart and one of the 530 workers put out of work when the Pico Rivera store closed in April, supposedly to repair plumbing. “Are we going to show Walmart how it is to be united?”

“Yes,” responded the protesters.

“Plumbing issues have nothing to do with it,” Luna said. “It is retaliation, and we’re going to stand up. We’re here united to help each other out and we’re here to show Walmart that OUR Walmart is here to stay.”

Walmart shut down four other stores in Florida, Oklahoma and Texas in April, leaving 2,200 workers unemployed.

“They try to fire me on a daily basis. I fight for my rights,” Edgar Gonzalez, who has worked at McDonald’s for two years and is part of the Fight for $15, told the rally. “We’re going to lose some battles but we’re going to win some, too.”

—Danielle London

Turkish auto workers’ sit-down strike wins concessions

Some 5,000 workers at the Oyak Renault factory in Bursa, Turkey, began a sit-down strike May 15, demanding better wages and working conditions and the right to choose their union. The action began after the Turkish Metal Union, which represents them, signed a three-year agreement with a 3 percent wage increase in a country where inflation far exceeds that rate.

According to the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman, “Workers said the dispute was sparked after union Turk Metal last month negotiated a 60 percent wage hike for workers at a plant run by parts maker Bosch Fren, but failed to secure a similar deal elsewhere.”

“This strike has led to other strikes at a number of companies, some with factory occupations, in Bursa as well as other cities such as Istanbul and Ankara,” said a statement by the French General Confederation of Workers issued May 28 in French and Turkish and distributed to workers in the Renault plant in Paris.

On May 14, more than 1,500 Oyak Renault night shift workers did not clock in and gathered in front of the plant. The company is a joint venture between France’s Renault and the Turkish army’s pension fund.

The strike spread to Tofas, a joint venture between Fiat and Turkey’s Koc Holding, and to Koc Holding’s subsidiaries, Ford Otosan and Turk Traktor, as well as supplier factories in Bursa.

The booming automotive industry in Turkey generated $22.3 billion a year.

Renault workers resumed production May 27 after the company agreed to no punitive actions against strikers, official recognition of workers’ delegates elected during the strike, workers’ right to join the union of their choice, two bonuses, a wage increase to be announced within a month, no criminal charges against strikers and pay for the 13 days of the strike.

— Yasemin Aydinoglu and Nat London

Boston hotel workers protest unsafe working conditions

BOSTON — Some 75 members of UNITE HERE Local 26 and supporters protested unsafe working conditions with an informational picket line in front of the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill Hotel May 27.

Workers say the hotel fails to provide proper protective equipment when they must deal with biohazards.

The hotel is located across the street from Massachusetts General Hospital and offers a special rate to its patients. “Many MGH hospital patients stay at the Wyndham while recovering from surgery or receiving treatment for illness,” states a brochure distributed by pickets.

“I once cleaned a room so full of blood that it was on the carpets, the walls, and in the bathroom,” Jose Berciano, a houseman at the Wyndham Boston for 17 years, explains in the brochure. “The only additional protections I received were plastic trash bags taped to my body.”

In an April UNITE HERE survey of Wyndham housekeepers, they reported finding “bandages, gauze, syringes, insulin, pills, saline bags, respirators, oxygen tanks and colostomy bags in the hotel.” Housekeepers also reported they had not been provided a way to safely disposal of blood, vomit and other bodily waste or needles, the brochure states.

“They need to protect us and respect us,” Berciano told the Militant on the picket line. “Fighting is the only way things will improve.” Since they began fighting for a union and a contract, he said, the company has started buying better gloves and masks for them.

In a statement, Wyndham Hotel Group said, “On-property associates undergo safety training, which includes chemical safety, fire prevention, and blood-borne pathogen training,” and denied that hotel associates are forced to handle hospital waste, reported the Boston Globe.

In mid-May the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began an inspection at the hotel based on a complaint by the workers.

—Ted Leonard

Quebec valve workers locked out after rejecting contract

MONTREAL — Some 400 valve workers, members of the Confederation of National Trade Unions, were locked out by Velan Inc. May 25 after voting down by 78 percent the “final offer” by management that had been endorsed by union officials.

Picket lines are up at four gates around the large plant. Many truckers and others honk their horns in solidarity.

“Velan wanted an important change in ‘labor flexibility,’” Local President José Sousa told the media. “In other words, the company wanted the option to transfer employees to other jobs. The membership said this was unacceptable, fearing that the company would abuse its right to transfer workers and that this could lead to job losses.”

The bosses’ proposal included a 2.5 percent annual wage increase over three years. Velan President Yves Leduc accused the union of organizing a slowdown in the weeks before the lockout. Quebec-based Velan employs more than 2,000 workers at plants in 11 countries.

—Jim Stanton